SOURCE: "The Confession as Subtext in The Death of Ivan Wich," in The International Fiction Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer, 1981, pp. 124-28.

In the following essay, Matual argues that the experiences of Ivan Ilitch in The Death of Ivan Ilitch are a fictional parallel to Tolstoy's spiritual crisis in his Confession.

In the late 1870's, Leo Tolstoy experienced a dramatic spiritual transformation as a result of which he devoted himself almost exclusively to the writing of such religious treatises as The Confession, An Investigation of Dogmatic Theology, and A Union and Translation of the Four Gospels. Although his faith and the works that stemmed from it gave him great joy and satisfaction, they created considerable dissension in the Tolstoy household. His wife Sofia Andreevna, frequently complained that her husband's scholarly pursuits were ruining his health, introducing an alien and unwanted element into their domestic life, and incurring the wrath...